Paws News April 2008

Paws Abilities Behaviour & Learning Centre
Newsletter Number 17 APRIL 2008
Hullo to all Paws Abilities students, friends and family. In this issue we have lots of great idea’s for your interest. As you probably know sentencing for the family who pleaded guilty in the horse abuse case is going ahead on Tuesday in the Cornelia court in the Free State. I will provide feed back on what sentence was given afterwards.
BASIC TRACKING GAMES Would you believe that your dog is capable of following a track left by a person and finding them at the end, and that you can teach this in the time it takes to feed his normal daily meal without any extra training? Many dog owners are learning about the sport of Tracking. Find out if your dog has what it takes to be the next Tracking Champion or Search and Rescue hero!
Ø The plan is really quite simple. You take a portion of your dog's normal meal in a plastic bag. Then you 'lay the track', just walk normally across your yard, placing a piece of food in each step.
Ø Pretty easy right? Your dog shouldn't have any trouble at all finding all the food you left lying around the yard. When he gets to the end of the track, tell him what a good boy he is and give him the rest of his meal. He doesn't actually have to find anyone at the end, yet. He just needs to find the food.
Ø Next meal you do the same thing, but don't place the food in every footstep. Leave a few out, one here and one there. The idea is to make your dog work a little harder to find the food, but still succeed really easily.
Ø Next meal you do the same thing, but place food in every second footstep.
Ø Next meal you place food in every third footstep.
Ø Continue in this fashion, adding a few mild changes of direction to the track. Make it easy for your dog, the idea is to have him succeed really easily. This is just the beginning after all.
What we're trying to teach is a connection between the scents left on a track and the food. At first it's just a continuous trail of food, but as you start leaving food out your dog will have to look for clues. The consistent clue is that the food is always where your footsteps have been.
Dogs already know how to track. They are born with an amazing ability to find things using their noses. What we are teaching here is that we want them to follow footsteps. The food reinforces this behaviour.

CLICKER STORIES The limited hold is scientific terminology laboratory slang, really for a good way to use the marker and reinforcer to speed up response to a cue. We are all used to sluggish responses. You call folks for supper, and in due course, they come; meanwhile the soufflé falls or the soup gets cold. You ask the class members to be quiet, and some sit down and shut up, but it’s quite a while before the last few stop talking. You call your dog to come in the house and it comes, grudgingly, finding half a dozen new things to sniff at before actually reaching the back door.
Suppose you are dealing with just such a behaviour. You give the cue, and you get the response, but after a delay. Now you want to fix that. First, practice it a few times to judge the average length of the delay. You can count seconds to yourself, or actually use a stopwatch. Now give the cue, watch the time go by, and reinforce the response if it occurs within the average time. If the cue response occurs outside the time limit, call an end to the trial (with dogs, easily done by moving to a new location). Then give the cue again and start your countdown again.
In “Don’t Shoot the Dog” (©®™) I told this story about a limited hold. At Sea Life Park in the 1960s, one of our most effective show highlights was a group of six little spinner dolphins that did various leaps and whirls in response to underwater sound cues. The most spectacular behaviour was the aerial spin for which they are named. Initially, when that cue went on, spins occurred raggedly and sporadically across a fifteen-second period.
Using a stopwatch, we started turning the cue on only for twelve seconds, and marking and rewarding only spins that occurred during that time. When most of the animals were spinning within that period we cranked down the limited hold, shortening the time to! ten seconds, then five, and eventually to two and a half seconds. It couldn’t go much shorter, because the animals had to dive, first, to get up speed to jump fast enough to do a good spin. In any case, every animal learned that in order to get a fish it had to hit the air and perform the spin within two and a half seconds of the time the cue went on.
As a result, the animals poised themselves attentively near the underwater loudspeaker. When the spin cue went on, the pool erupted in an explosion of whirling bodies in the air; it was quite spectacular.
One day while sitting among the audience I was amused to overhear a professorial type firmly informing his companions that the only way we could be getting that kind of response was by electric shock.
The object is not to punish slower runs, but to pay only for faster ones.
You make you criterion roomy enough so that most, but not all, of the runs are within your chosen limit.
The length of time your learner takes to respond to a cue is called, in the lab, latency. A long gap is called high latency, a quick response shows low latency. You can sometimes shape a low latency response, without bothering to measure the time, by asking for a lot of responses in quick succession and reinforcing only the quicker ones. For example, in demonstrating a shift in latency, I sometimes seek out a dog with a slow, lethargic sit: on cue, but high latency. I call him, back up a step or two (to get him moving forward), click and treat when he comes, and repeat a couple of times.
When the dog is coming with me willingly I back up and say sit, stop, and click just as his back legs begin to fold; treat, call him, back up again quickly, and cue sit again, clicking the act of sitting, not waiting for the full sit. Then I progress to backing up, cueing the sit, and clicking as the rump hits the ground; and then to clicking as he sits but only if he sits instantly when he hears the word. If he hesitates, I back up again, ! call him again, and say sit again. In about twenty clicks (and thirty seconds or so) the limited hold is down to practically zero and the dog is sitting like a champion. One would then repeat this facing the other direction, and then perhaps in another room, on another day, and finally outdoors, to generalize the low-latency response. And of course having embarked on this repair job you would also drop from your own repertoire the habit of reinforcing slow sits.
With the come cue, often a dawdly behaviour, it can be hard to gauge what’s faster and what’s slower just by watching. In this case a methodical application of a limited hold can be useful. Think of the limited hold as a single criterion, like height of a jump, duration of a sit, strength of a push. You can train it in one situation, and then extend the criterion to other times and places. So, in the example of a dog that sniffs and dawdles over every blade of grass en route to the back door, you might train a low-latency recall indoors, first, and then gradually add speed as a criterion of the recall, in other circumstances. A long hallway is a great place to do this. Mark a chalk line across the floor at each end of the hall. Stand behind the line at one end. Enlist a helper to call or lead the dog back to the other end of the hall between each run, or to hold the dog while you move to the other end. Make the run very short (five feet or so) the first few times, clicking the dog’s arrival at the chalk line and giving a highly preferred treat.
Now extend the run to the length of the hall. How are you going to tell which of two similar runs was faster? Most of us recite the alphabet at a pretty steady rate. You can use that to measure small increments of improvement. Come, you say, and as the dog shambles toward you, you recite a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l until he crosses your chalk line, whereupon you click and treat. On the next run you’ll know if he speed s up a little, because he will reach you by h or j instead o! f k. Good! Click/treat. And of course if he takes longer, you’ll know that too.
The object is not to punish slower runs, but to pay for faster ones. You make you criterion roomy enough so that most, but not all, of the runs are within your chosen limit. The procedure itself may naturally speed up the dog. As he begins to pick up speed you can introduce the limited hold: choose the maximum letter you’ll tolerate, and if he doesn’t get there by that letter, change ends and call him back the other way. I have seen the world’s slowest Newfie, who plodded all the way to l-m-n-o-p on his first try, end up by responding to the come cue at a nice canter, getting to me by b-c-d, after about fifteen clicks and treats.
Oh, of course this works with people. When I’m lecturing with a new group of people, for example, at the very beginning I ask for quiet with a gesture, a raised hand. Generally everyone goes on talking. Then I get down from the podium and go around the room for about thirty seconds, clicking and handing a treat (Hershey Kisses) to any people who are being quiet. The next time I ask for quiet, usually when starting up again after a break, I stand still and look at my watch. When most of the people have stopped talking, I click into the microphone and say Good! And start talking.
If you are attentive to selectively reinforcing brisk responses to cues in a few crucial responses paying only for low latency responses all of that learners cue responses will tend to be brisker.
By the third time it happens the audience falls silent, except for a giggle here and there (She’s training us!) as soon as I step up to the podium and raise my hand. I’ve established a cue, the raised hand, and I’ve also shaped a good low latency response.
As Bob and Marian Bailey put it, latencies are contagious. If you are attentive to selectively reinforcing brisk responses to cues in a few crucial responses paying only for low! latency response all of that learner’s cue responses will tend to be brisker. That makes for a sharp-looking worker!
On the other hand, if you generally accept and pay for any eventual response to your cue or request, even if it took the learner (the dog, the child, the teenager, the spouse) forever to actually do it, then high latencies and long waits is what you’ll get in general.
One example I’ve experienced personally is the difference between getting on one of the guest riding horses at a dude ranch, and getting on a working cowpony, a cutting or roping horse. The horse in the riding stable starts up into a slow walk after you’ve kicked it a few times, and requires several kicks and some urging to break into a trot.
Steering it may also require some effort, and it stops slowly too, going from a canter down to a jog and finally a slow walk again. The cutting horse moves on a dime, in contrast, moves and changes speed and direction instantly, on the smallest of cues. What a pleasure; the latencies are so low it feels as if all you have to do is think what you want the horse to do, and it’s already happening.
And all you need to do, to have your own learners respond that way, is to value and reinforce quick responses to cues, withhold reinforcement for slow responses, and, when the difference is hard to measure, reach for that useful tool, the limited hold.

THREE RULES FOR A WELL BEHAVED DOG 1. Consistency: communication between different species is not an easy task, especially when one species can talk and the other can't! Inconsistency makes that task all the more difficult. By adopting consistent behaviours in yourself, setting consistent boundaries, and keeping some sort of consistent routine - your dog will have an easier job of figuring out what you expect.
2. Lead by example: dogs tend to mimic our actions. Don't rely on them interpreting our intentions correctly. If we yell at our dog for being aggressive, this can lead to more aggression from our dog. They don't necessarily understand that we are angry and upset with their actions, they just follow our lead. When we learn calm approaches to dealing with this sort of problem, our lead is followed with calmness in return.
3. Reward good behaviour: behaviour that is effectively rewarded tends to increase or continue. Therefore it makes sense to reward the behaviour we want to see in our dogs. In the same way we get paid to work, our dogs expect to be paid too. Life in the pack works that way; food, security, shelter, play and social contact are the rewards dogs work for. Whilst our pet dogs get most of this stuff for free, it makes sense to ask them to do something to earn it, no matter how simple the task. Asking a dog to sit before letting it outside, or asking for a short 'stay' before being fed are two simple examples.
By adopting these 3 qualities and making them habits in your day to day interaction with your dogs, you will see positive changes in your relationship. Dogs do respect these qualities and respond in kind with faithful companionship.

Now anyone who knows us here at Paws Abilities Behaviour & Learning Centre will tell you that we DON’T even allow a choke chain to be used on the premises. In fact I have found a wonderful use for choke chains, I use them for padlocking my home made gates!
A Study on Prong/Pinch Collars was done in Germany:
100 dogs were used in the study. 50 were trained using choke chains and 50 were trained using prong or pinch collars.
The dogs were studied for their entire lives. As dogs died, autopsies were performed on each individual.
Of the 50 which had been trained and walked their entire lives on choke chains, 48 had injuries to the neck, trachea, or back. 2 of those were determined to be genetic. The other 46 were caused by trauma.
Of the 50 which had been trained and walked on pinch/prongs their entire lives, 2 had injuries in the neck area, 1 was determined to be genetic. 1 was caused by trauma.
Whilst I DO NOT APPROVE OF EITHER form of restraint – The result of the study certainly surprised me greatly.

Paws Abilities LOVES Puppies
Paws Abilities LOVES Dogs
CANINE BODY POSTURE’S


Active Submission






Passive Submission


Offensive (agonistic/aggressive) Body Posture






Defensive (agonistic/aggressive) Body Posture







Stress and Anxious Body Posture







Relaxed Body Posture




Alert Body Posture










Play Bow – An Invitation to Play!




FEEDING YOUR PUPPY
Taken from “Discover Your Puppies Paws Abilities”
By Accredited Animal Behaviour Consultant Louise Thompson

Puppies (and all dogs) should have access to clean water at all times. Pups need feeding three to four times per day. To ensure that your pup is getting enough to eat, he should ideally leave a little food in the dish after each meal.

PUPPIES AND FEEDING
Everyone wants to make sure that their puppy is the best fed, best cared for puppy in the world. For this reason they want to give him the best they possibly can. Here are a few tips and points to ponder.

THE FEEDING DISH
Make sure that the pup can reach into the dish easily. Do not give him a dish that is too high or too flat and that would make it difficult for him to get the food out of the dish. Put the dish on a piece of newspaper, an old towel, or a rubber mat. This will prevent the dish from slipping and sliding, and will also ease cleaning.

FEEDING DURING THE FIRST FEW DAYS
A good breeder should supply you with the relevant feeding information, charts, quantity, brand names, etc. This is in order to reduce the risk of upsetting the puppy’s tummy.

No dramatic change in diet should be made, especially in the first few days. The pup needs to settle into his new environment and any emotional upsets, stress and change of diet, increases the odds of upset tummies! If your pup gets mild diarrhoea, do not panic. A couple of loose stools is not unusual. It could be caused by stress or a change of water - and can be considered normal. Seek veterinary advice if it continues for more than just a couple of loose stools! Rather be safe than sorry! Pups, like human babies, dehydrate very quickly. I cannot stress the importance of not allowing this to happen.

Severe diarrhoea and dehydration in young animals can be fatal. If in any doubt – consult your veterinarian. As previously stated, any changes in diet (even small changes, such as feeding different products/brand names, etc.) must be made very gradually. The easiest way to go about any feed change is to add/replace a teaspoonful at a time to the existing meal until the pup reaches a tolerance level.

FEEDING MALNOURISHED – RESCUE PUPPIES
Often pups that have had a bad beginning will have sensitive stomachs, which are less tolerant to commercial feed. These pups sometimes have to be started on a plain bland diet of chicken and rice, with a spoonful of plain yogurt. These pups gradually need to acquire tolerance to normal food. Their tummies need to become stabilised, any commercial dog food can be added. Please note that there is also special feed available from your veterinarian for pups/dogs with allergies, sensitive tummies and special needs. If in any doubt please check with your veterinarian.

FREQUENCY OF MEALS
Puppies need to be fed little and often. At seven to eight weeks of age, they should be having three to four meals a day. A healthy, happy puppy will polish his meal off very quickly, though he may not always lick the plate clean! So do not panic if he leaves a little on his plate for “Mr Manners”! Rather feed him a little extra, so that there is a bit of food left over. Then you know that he is fulfilled both nutritionally and emotionally.

TOILET AFTER EACH MEAL
Take the pup outside immediately after each meal so that he can eliminate and do his “business”. Most pups will toilet within a few minutes of having eaten their meal, which makes cleaning up and toilet training easy!

REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF MEALS PER DAY
After a couple of months - when the pup is between five and six months old - he will probably start to show less interest in one of the meals. In this case the meals should be reduced to three a day. The pup should continue to have three meals a day until he is more mature. It depends on breed and size and any individual special needs. If in doubt, consult your veterinarian. The pup is still growing – and his bones are still developing. Only when he has completed most of his growing (or about a year or so), should his meals be reduced to twice a day.

Many pups - will show their owners when they are ready to cut out a meal by a lack of interest in one of the meals, usually the midday meal. Observe your pup! If you learn to ‘read’ your pup, he will let you know by his behaviour and response to the food dish when it is time to feed less frequently.
If in any doubt regarding your pup’s appetite, please consult your veterinarian. Loss of appetite and listlessness are the first two symptoms of illness, or of something being amiss with your pup. If in doubt, check with your veterinarian.




DO NOT LEAVE FOOD DOWN FOR THE PUP (OR ANY DOG FOR THAT MATTER) TO FEED “SELF SERVICE!”
Do not create a “Self Service” feeding-station for the pup by leaving food down for him! Ad lib feeding is a bad idea! When food is left down for any length of time, the food could become contaminated by exposure to flies, germs, rodents, etc. If there is always food available in a dish, you have no idea how much or how often the puppy is eating! Loss of appetite becomes harder to spot, which means that illness could be diagnosed too late!

Moreover, from a behavioural point of view, if the pup is fed ad lib, food ceases to be a valuable resource. This could affect a positive relationship with you. If valuable resources are given for “free”, then why bother to “work for” or “earn them”? This definitely applies to canines as much as it does to humans. Therefore, you, as pack leader, should be in control of all valuable resources, including food!

FEEDING RULES
Give the pup ten minutes (you can even set your watch), to finish his meal.
If he is not finished after ten minutes, then take the food away.
Remove the food away even if he has only begun to eat the meal after ten minutes.
Make sure that the loss of appetite is not connected to ill health.
If your puppy refuses food after the second meal, consult your veterinarian to rule out any possible illness.

FUSSY PUPPIES
Most puppies will happily gobble down anything that is put before them. THERE IS ALWAYS THE EXCEPTION! Pups learn from an early age which behaviours work and which behaviours to repeat. Fussy eating is one of them. The pup will learn very quickly that if he refuses his meal, you are going to add something special to encourage him to eat it! We also tend to do this with our kids. Do not fall into this trap! If you stick to your guns and do not give in to him, the pup will eat! If you weaken and start adding extra yummy stuff, the pup will have won and you will have set a precedent for the rest of the pup’s life. If you have a tiny breed, this may not be such a big deal. But what if you have one of the giant breeds? Are you going to be prepared, both in terms of time and costs, to add yummy stuff to his meal for the next ten to twelve years? If not, start the way that you mean to go on! Any significant loss of appetite could indicate illness. If in doubt consult your veterinarian.

WHAT TO FEED YOUR PUPPY
There is a saying that goes “You are what you eat”!
This is true not only for people, but also for dogs and puppies!

Today, there are numerous ready-made, pre-packaged, excellent quality pet foods available. Dry food is extremely convenient, easy to use and store, palatable and easy for the pup to digest. There are good quality feeds available from both your veterinarian and from the local supermarket.

Puppies need a fully balanced diet and the feed has to be one that has been specially developed for puppies, as adult dog food does not always have the correct balance of nutrients and vitamins for a growing youngster!

What you feed your pup is your business. Everyone has his or her own different ideas and opinions! Try to give them the best that you can afford, but remember that each dog/pup is different and that there are many alternatives from natural diets to the pre-packaged feeds. You decide! This is your puppy, and you should feed it what you feel is right for you, your pup and your pocket. If you are in any doubt or have concerns regarding your puppy’s diet, contact your local veterinarian who will advise you or refer you to a qualified animal nutritionist.


ADVANCED SOCIALISATION FOR OLDER DOGS
Taken from an article by Chad Mackin (USA)

This advanced socialisation programme is designed to eliminate all fear based forms of dog to dog aggression. It is specifically designed for the sorts of dogs that many dog training schools and doggy day care refuse to take, or indeed the kinds of dogs that are never let off leash in the usual dog training school environment.

The instructor interferes only when absolutely necessary for the safety of the dogs. Nips, snarls, growls, stand over’s, stare downs and the offering (and demanding) of alpha rolls are all permitted in most contexts. Laying tooth to flesh with the intention to injure IS NOT PERMITTED: But is probably the only thing that is not!

Advanced socialisation is about letting the natural conflict resolution capabilities of the dog, do what they were designed to do, without human interference. Human interference is often a large part of many dogs anti-social behaviour problems. Remove the human influence, and lo and behold, you often remove most of the dog’s problem.

Of course it’s not that simple, running an advanced socialisation group, successfully requires an advanced understanding of canine communication and movement. It also requires exceptional judgment on the part of the behaviourists / instructor or trainer
Not all dogs are permitted straight away. Some will need to be pre-trained. A balance between the number of dogs and the amount of unoccupied real estate also needs to be maintained. Too little of either can mean disaster.

The class is run entirely without leashes. THIS IS NOT A CLASS TO BE TAUGHT OR SUPERVISED BY A HOBBYIST! Someone thoroughly skilled at reading dogs and understanding group dynamics needs to be the person running a group like this.

This is not a revolutionary idea, dogs have been doing it for centuries but for many trainers and instructors (and behaviourists) its seems not only new, but also dangerous and to some, insane. Done right, it is neither! The foundations principles are simple.

To begin with we must recognise that true dog-to-dog aggression hardly exists at all outside the battle or fighting breeds. What we describe as dog-to-dog aggression is typically the result of uncertainty, fear, or just plain bad manners! All of which are caused, at least in part, by limited, or improper socialisation.

True dog-to–dog aggression looks very different from what we normally see and label as dog-to-dog aggression. Snarling, growling, snapping and raised hackles are all efforts to avoid a fight, not to start one. True dog aggression does not start with a loading process: square, set and go.

In over 20 years of training dogs full time, I have only once seen a dog that was truly dog-to-dog aggressive. If you see it only once, you will never forget it, and never mistake one for the other. These truly dog-to-dog aggressive dogs are not suitable for this kind of advanced socialisation groups (I must ad that these dogs are rarely presented to dog trainers for rehabilitation). Dogs bred genetically to fight in pits are also not appropriate to socialise in this manner. Genetics is something that can not be undone!

The next thing that we must recognise is that leashes make dogs more aggressive. When frightened, dogs have three options: Fight, Flight or Freeze. For most dogs, flight is the preferred choice. However, when we put them on a leash we remove that option, leaving them ONLY with the other two choices – freeze and/or fight! Freezing only works for so long, when the threat is not removed or worse yet, gets closer, the dog is then only left with one option – fight!

Finally we must understand that most dogs, like most people, just want to get through their day with as little conflict as possible. If they can avoid a fight, for the most part they will.

What we provide in the advanced socialising group is an opportunity for dogs to learn how to interact with other dogs properly. We allow them to set boundaries. In fact we encourage it and when necessary, enforce their boundaries. They learn not only that they can say “no” but that other dogs, by and large, will respect those boundaries. Suddenly other dogs are not so scary or unpredictable.

The benefits go far beyond just improving their social skills though. Through these groups they learn bite inhibition, bite control, better language skills, better stress management skills, and improved confidence. These things reach every aspect of the dog’s life!

There are three elements required to safely run an advanced socialisation group. The first is adequate space. There must be enough room for any dogs to retreat to a safe distance when and if he feels the need (critical distance) . How much space is needed is largely dictated by the personalities of the dogs in the class. Large Field Socialisation (first put together by David Klein of Spain) is the predecessor of the Advanced Socialisation Group and as the name implies is conducted in a large field or acreage. I was told by one of the leading promoters of the Klein system that the concept could not be conducted indoors or in a small area. He was wrong. I have done both for many years.
Of course some changes had to be made. There is a way to do this successfully and safely in a relatively small area. But, the space needs to be watched closely.

The next thing that is necessary is an adequate number of dogs. We want to create a situation where there are so many dogs that it is difficult for the biter to choose who he wants to bite. He simply can’t fight every one of them. When fighting fails as a response (because potential adversaries overwhelm him) he must choose a different route.

The final critical element is a skilled referee. Without someone to keep things running smoothly this sort of thing would be quite dangerous. There is much more to it than just throwing a bunch of dogs together – this can not be stressed enough! The success of the class is entirely dependent of the skill of the person running the class. All that theory is great – but does it work? Read on!

OSCAR A DOG-TO-DOG FEAR BITER:
Within ten seconds of being released Oscar nipped at three different dogs. This is not uncommon. I wasn’t concerned but stayed close to Oscar just to be sure. I did not correct Oscar for his inappropriate behaviour. His nips, whilst unpleasant were not dangerous.

The other dogs did not correct him either! What they did was to refine their approach until he was willing to accept their presence. They recognised that he was uncomfortable and rather that take his behaviour as an insult, they sought to ease his concerns.

I watched as Oscar explored the subtlety of his own body language and as he began to understand the respect that the other dogs gave him. By the end of the session, he was allowing other dogs to sniff him and was sniffing them. He ran towards one dog is if to solicit play but then backed down at the last moment. He was ranging much further from his owner and staying away for longer periods of time.

Oscar was afraid of other dogs. Has had learnt to drive them away by acting aggressively. The rest of the dogs taught him that he didn’t have to do this. They respected his boundaries once he had established them. Once he realised that a slight change in his head elevation, or and angle of his shoulder would get the other dogs to back off, he understood that they were not a threat! He then began to relax because he knew that he could create space whenever he wanted. He stopped shouting, and began talking!

He never showed any irritation or fear towards any of the people there – (they had all been given strict instructions not to interact with him or acknowledge him in any way!)

This sort of convergent conditioning is not usually a quick fix – but occasionally it is! At the end of the session, Oscar was back on leash, along with the other dogs. He was calm and relaxed, showing no signs of stress about the proximity of the other dogs. Oscar was not “fixed” yet, but he was capable of doing something that the day before he was not able to do! Over the next few weeks Oscar returned for group sessions several times. Before long he was actually playing with the other dogs and helping the more frightened dogs to find their way into the playgroups. He was for all intents and purposes completely rehabilitated. But this is not my success ………………. The dogs teach the class – I only referee!

Chad Mackin has been a professional dog trainer for over 30 years – he is also on the board of the International Association of Canine Professionals in the USA.


PRIMARY SOCIALISATION
Why You Should Not Adopt Your Puppy Before It Is At Least Eight Weeks Of Age
By Lotte Griffiths, Animal Behaviour Consultant
February 2008


Over the past couple of years it has become more and more common for so-called “breeders” to allow their puppies to be adopted by their new families when they are a mere six weeks of age. This is an extremely worrying trend because at six weeks, a puppy’s primary socialization period is by no means complete and a fair proportion of puppies that are removed from the litter at this age develops lifelong deficits and dysfunctional behaviours and may also exhibit poor coping and learning abilities and become over-dependent on their owners.

The period between 3 to 8 weeks of age is the time when puppies must learn how to be a dog; they need to learn about intra-litter relationships as well as intra-species etiquette and communication skills. This effectively means that puppies that are placed with their new human families at six weeks of age may never learn how to communicate with their own kind! Such puppies will, typically, have difficulties enjoying intra-species relationships and are likely to exhibit distrust or even extreme fear of social contact. In other words, placing a six week old puppy in a home with no other dogs, or together with other dogs that may also lack these vital canine communication skills, dramatically increases the likelihood that the puppy will become fearful and aggressive towards other dogs.

During this very important period of a puppy’s development, puppies also need to develop the ability to cope with resignation when faced with adversity, e.g. coping with the loss of a nipple or trophy to a littermate. Puppies that do not learn this vital lesson often becomes brats and may even become aggressively territorial over their valued resources, such as toys, bones, attention, food and food-bowl, etc. Another skill puppies need to learn during this stage is how to control the force of their bites.

In a normal litter situation, this skill will be learnt through play and feeding, because whenever they bite a littermate or their dam too hard, the littermate will squeal and refuse to interact and the bitch will, depending somewhat on her temperament, either simply stand up and shake the puppy off or physically correct the puppy with a snarl or even a controlled snap.

As you can see from the above, waiting until the puppy is at least eight weeks of age before you take it home, will give your puppy many vital learning opportunities which it will miss-out-on if you remove it from its littermates and dam too early. I therefore strongly recommend that you do not bring your puppy home until it is at least eight weeks of age.
Provided the breeder is knowledgeable and well informed about puppies’ behavioural development and requirements and, provided he or she is able to provide the puppies with adequate socialisation opportunities, waiting until the puppy is 10 or even 12 weeks old before you bring it home, would be even better. Any “breeder” who insists that their clients adopt their puppy when the puppy is a mere six weeks of age, clearly is more interested in saving money on puppy-shots and puppy food than they are in giving the puppies the very best start in life! Thus, if your “breeder” insists that you take your puppy home when it is only six weeks old, I equally strongly recommend that you look for another breeder!


Allelomimetic Hostility in Family Dogs
A newly married couple (no children) with two 2 year old, intact, male, littermate Siberian Huskies, sought help for what they described as "fighting that starts for no reason.” During the fact-finding interview they were asked to describe all the event that led up to the very first fight the dogs ever had. It occurred after dinner on a weekend about three months ago. The couple were in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes when the dogs started fighting in the room behind them.

They were both shocked, seeing the dogs locked onto each other cheeks; neither one seemed ready to let go of the other. Both had choke chain collars on and the husband grabbed both collars while the wife screamed, the dogs let go and both bit him on the forearms, releasing their bites immediately. He let go of the chokers and dogs resumed their contest, while the husband began kicking them to stop what he feared would be serious bloodshed.

Fortunately, the husband slipped and fell on his back, whereupon the dogs quit fighting, ran out of the kitchen, and stood in the living room, panting, but none the worse for wear. The only blood was from fang scrapes on the husband arms. Both dogs displayed excellent bite inhibition, both in the fight and on their defensive reaction to being choked by the husband's grasp on the choke chains collars.

All this gory detail was great drama, but we still hadn't learned what caused the fight. So the interview continued to focus on the dinner table. I asked what they had been talking about during the meal and afterwards. Bingo! As is so
often the case in family fighters, it turns out the couple had been having a heated argument about money problems during dinner. There had been quite a bit of shouting. The verbal slings continued during un-setting the table and the
wash-up in the kitchen. They usually saved a bit of dinner as a treat for the dogs when the dished were done. It was at this time that the dog fight started... just as the treat was expected.

Allelomimetic behaviour is most graphically seen in schools of fish and flocks of flying birds.... as the leader goes, so does the flock, almost in unison. The meaning of this Greek term, "mutual mimicry" takes on new dimensions between
humans and their domestic pets... it often expresses itself as "feel-like, act-like, be-like" behaviour. Hence, the owners primed their dogs with hostility quite effective during the dinner, carried it into the kitchen, and then the dogs came together in a competitive situation...vying for the first morsel. The owners usually had both dogs sit before presenting the treat because some growling had started a few weeks before as they waited for their titbits.

Unfortunately, allelomimetic behaviour receives scant attention from the majority of experts in the field of pet animal behaviour. However, it plays a major role in diagnosing the causes of pet dog behaviour problems, from destructive chewing to aggression. It is especially important in cases bearing the catch-all diagnosis "separation anxiety," so much in vogue these days. However, since allelomimetic behaviour was part of the cause for the dogs' fighting, it was also
a major part of the cure. These clients were quick to appreciate their role in the first, as well as nearly every one of the following battles their "boys" had waged. So, I simply asked them how they could use this dynamic behavioural tool to solve the problem. After a long silence, they looked at each other and, exchanging knowing smiles, suggested that they should work out their money problems privately, or at least not speak angrily in front of the dogs. Then, they said they might start acting happy during and after dinner or whenever the dogs seemed to be getting up tight or were in close quarters, which had triggered a few fights.

This case spanned the usual six weeks, during which the couple satisfied the dogs need for exercise and stimulation off the property and taught the dogs some basic off-leash obedience commands (sometimes even using allelomimetic behaviour) to Come, Sit, Stay, Heel and Down. At the end, they said even their three years old marriage was back on a happy and highly satisfying track. This case has an important moral for all dog owners... "If you want happy dogs, then be happy people."



Best Regards
Louise
P.S. Where are my Letters to the Editor??? You can also comment on the m web Paws News blog where the newsletter and other questions will be answered